Trust is a Layered Thing
by setyourlazerstopew
Summary: "Are you actually kidding me, this isn't fair! How am I meant to keep being my cool, unaffected, unattached self when he's here being so… him." Lup stares incredulously at Taako. "Okay, first of all? No-one believes that you are an unfeeling robot." Taako motions over to his Iron man suit. - TAZ and MARVEL fusion


_**Summary:**_

 _Taako stares at Lup as she says this. "Are you actually kidding me, this isn't fair! How am I meant to keep being my cool, unaffected, unattached self when he's here being so… him." His rant loses some of its energy towards the end, his head hanging a bit in defeat._ _Lup stares incredulously at Taako. "Okay, first of all? No-one believes that you are an unfeeling robot." Taako motions over to his Iron man suit but Lup continues not even deigning that with a response._  
 **A TAZ and MARVEL fusion.**

There's just no rest for the wicked. When will this end!

Taako pulls in his arms and flies through the broken window, watching the robots crash into the building over his shoulder. Whoever designed these things did not do a good job on their AI programming, they're dumb as all hell.

More relaxed now he adjusts his hand stabilisers so that he's hovering over the city, keeping an eye out for the rest of his teammates. A voice in his ear speaks quickly while he's scanning.

"Hey Iron boy, Captain America seems to be in a bit of trouble if you want to help the old man out."

Taako rolls his eyes in his suit, "Heard loud and clear Merle."

"Aww come on! What's the point in having super secret code names if you're not going to use them!"

"They're not exactly super secret, everyone knows them. There are toys of us Merle."

"It's the principle of the thing" he mutters to himself. Taako can imagine the pout that he is supporting now. Grinning, he flies over to where Merle has said that Magnus was to discover that 'a bit of trouble' was putting it mildly.

He's absolutely surrounded by bots, and sure, he's mowing a lot of them down, but 5 more pop up for each one down.

Taako can fix this.

Lining up his repulsors, he fires into the crowd surrounding Magnus and blasts the bots trying to sneak up on him. It doesn't look like any of these ones can fly. He circles above him, watching out from above, picking them off one by one.

"Want to join me down here Iron man?" Magnus shouts up to Taako as he slams his shield into the chest of a robot.

"I'm cool with being your guardian angel or what have you up here, don't even sweat. Merle and I got you covered." He grins in his helmet.

At that moment Taako's heart rate jumps to astronomical levels as he sees Hulk leap straight at him from a building that has seen better days. He only just manages to spin out of the way to reveal two flying bots behind him. Hulk grabs them by their heads and promptly smashes them into the ground.

"Yup, that was some excessive force right there." His voice higher than usual with the burst of adrenaline. "Thanks Bulk, really got my back. Before they did anyway."

Magnus leans heavily onto his shield with his head resting on his hand as he realises that the enemies surrounding him have been taken care of for the time being.

Hulk, lifting his fists out of the craters he created looks at says sullenly, "Hulk's name is Hulk."

"It's just an affectionate nickname, don't get hung over it!" He goes to gently fist bump Hulk's arm but flits away as Hulk glares at him.

Magnus rolls his eyes at these antics. Their earpiece flicks on and an exasperated voice chimes in.

"Can you guys please argue at a different time?" Lucretia's says

"Director! This is not arguing, only friendly banter! Don't be getting your Hogwarts style robes in a twist." He flies up at this to fire a repulsor blast into more of the robots. They seem to spawn everywhere!

"It's not affecting performance as far as I can tell." Magnus huffs while flipping one robot over his shoulder. Taako grins over at him despite the fact that he can't see his face due to the face plate.

"See, even the Captain is on my side. No problem here."

"We got each other's back, don't worry." Taako warms at Magnus' words.

»»-¤-««

Taako is trying to fix the damage to his suit when a buzzing noise rings through his workshop. He sets down the solder and lifts up his helmet to see Magnus waiting by the locked door. Walking over to let him in, he types in the code quickly.

"Hey Mags, what brings you down to my bat cave?" He steps back to let him in, locking the door behind him.

"Checking up on you. You seemed to get a bit of a bashing earlier in your suit." He seems to be assessing Taako's body, noting all the bruises that he had accumulated during the battle. Taako appreciates that. Most people forget that there is a flesh and blood human in the suit. There's only so much padding that he can pack into the suits. He smiles softly.

"Nothing that some solder and ice can't fix, don't worry about it."

Magnus nods, tension that Taako didn't even realise was there disappears from his frame.  
He sits down beside his workbench and motions Magnus to take a seat on the couch he keeps for his frequent naps. Turning back to his soldering, Magnus' eyes roam over all of the gadgets and appliances that litter the workshop before glancing over towards the door he came in.

"Why do you have your workshop here on lockdown, surely the buildings own security would keep all the people you don't want in, out?" Taako tenses slightly before saying lightly.

"Not so worried about people from the outside getting in, I have that covered." Magnus pauses, letting that sink in before replying sadly.

"You're worried one of us will? Don't you trust us?" Taako rolls his shoulders uncomfortably before placing his solder down gently and spinning around to face him.

"On the battlefield, sure. I got your back, you got mine. But Magnus, you gotta understand, that's a whole different kind of trust."

"And I… we haven't earned that." He can see Magnus shrink on himself a bit as he says this and Taako decides to expose his heart a bit further.

"Don't look so down. If anything it's more a reflection on me than you." His arms wrap around himself as he turns back, flipping his helmet down again with a nod of his head. "I don't trust anyone."

He can feel Magnus' eyes on the back of his neck as he gently asks, "No- one?"

Feeling less exposed with his helmet on and his back turned Taako decides to reply with the truth. "You know how it is, someone you trusted completely breaks your heart and sells you out, it tends to make you close off." Magnus spends a few moments of silence before he voices a question.

"What about Lup?" Good question.

"Exception to the rule."

»»-¤-««

Taako is lying back on the couch in his workshop, one arm covering his eyes when Lup lets herself in.

"What are you wallowing about now?" Lup asks as she jumps on the couch and him.

He lets out a breath of air as she elbows him, so he lets her settle down next to him before he answers.

"I don't trust Magnus, he's too nice, too perfect. It's not natural."

Lup thinks about this for a moment. "I think he's for real though bro. I heard from Carey that when he was living in SHIELD that he used to keep some of his rations from the canteen for a stray dog that lived near the base."

Taako stares at Lup as she says this. "Are you actually kidding me, this isn't fair! How am I meant to keep being my cool, unaffected, unattached self when he's here being so… him." His rant loses some of its energy towards the end, his head hanging a bit in defeat.

Lup stares incredulously at Taako. "Okay, first of all? No-one believes that you are an unfeeling robot." Taako motions over to his Iron man suit but Lup continues not even deigning that with a response.

"I know you've been hurt before." She says carefully but Taako interjects with a passionate voice.

"Understatement! _He_ " Taako says scathingly, "almost killed me!" He wraps his arms around himself, wilting. "He would have if you hadn't have walked in."

"But he didn't and I understand that that event left a big mark on you, but you have to let yourself heal. And even though he's a huge dork." Taako chuckles softly, "I trust Magnus, and more importantly," She places a hand over his on his lap, "I trust him with you."

Taako looks down at their hands contemplatively.

"Just think about it bud, that's all I'm asking." She pats his shoulder as she turns to let herself out.

 **A/N**

So these are just kind of a few scenes that I had rattling around in my head that wanted to get out. They don't really lead anywhere and I don't have anything more planned for this universe. Enjoy as they are. :) I had a few of the TAZ crew mapped onto the Marvel guys from the beginning.

Hawkeye- Merle  
Coulson- Davenport  
Iron man- Taako  
Black Widow- Carey  
Thor- Lup  
Hulk- Barry (He has his stretchy jeans that stay with him always)  
Captain America- Magnus  
Fury- Lucretia  
Obie- Sazed


End file.
